Cleveland Interfaith Choir
Founded Oct. 29, 1982

The Cleveland Interfaith Choir (CIC) was conceived in September, 1982 through a personal appeal from Barbara Gulley Collier that singers throughout the community perform together at Williams Temple, Church of God In Christ, to help celebrate the church’s fiftieth anniversary.  The warmth of the fellowship felt by the group was so strong, and the Spirit of God so vivid, that the group literally entreated Mrs. Collier to have the choir continue and to serve as its' directress.

In obedience to a command from the Spirit of God, after much travail, on Friday, October 29, 1982, at the Christian Tabernacle Evangelistic Church, the body known as the Cleveland Interfaith Choir was born.

CIC does not hold auditions, but rather the members compel men and women and children wanting to come and dine with them, desiring to become a part of them, to believe that the Lord JESUS was born of a virgin, lived, died, was buried, and rose again on the third day with all power in heaven and earth in HIS HAND!!  While CIC is not a performing choir, it affords chief musicians, musicians and singers the opportunity of coming before God’s presence with singing as well as exhorting each other with spiritual songs and psalms.

Their first official appearance was at Cleveland Music Hall, on October 31, 1982, in “ Black Ministers for Celeste.”  The governor-elect rewarded them with an invitation to sing at the pre-inaugural festivities.

The choir’s membership roster of more than seventy-five members is comprised of many churches, including Baptists, Methodists, Church of Christ, Church of God In Christ, Pentecostals, Catholic, and others.  Members include deacons, ministers, choir directors, and musicians, as well as singers.  Choir members range from pre-school age children to senior citizens more than eighty years young.  They have served in a variety of services across America.  Travels have taken them to:  three different treks to New York City; Muncie, IN; Newark, NJ; Denver, CO; Baton Rouge, LA; Houston, TX; Tulsa, OK; St. Louis, MO; Los Angeles, CA; San Diego, CA; Atlanta, GA; Detroit, MI; Chicago, IL; Rapid City, SD; Orlando, FL; Pittsburgh, PA; Windsor, ONT, Canada; Charlotte, NC, Minneapolis, MN; Buffalo, NY, Meadville, PA; Birmingham, AL; Kansas City, KS; Seattle, WA;  as well as locales throughout Ohio and in the Greater Cleveland area too numerous to mention.

The choir has participated in the Community Cupboard project in conjunction with the Visiting Nurse Association of Cleveland, as well as providing needed items for residents of the Salvation Army’s Harbor Light Detoxification and Rehabilitation program, Cuyahoga County’s Juvenile Court, and provided worship service to numerous elderly care facilities throughout the county.

On May 28, 1993, the Lord saw fit to call from labor to reward His own servant, the founder and director of the choir, Barbara Gulley Collier.  Since that time, the choir elected her brother Michael, to serve as the president-director.  God has continued to bless CIC with His anointing and presence, and has allowed the choir to cut their second recording, “Tribute of Praise,” dedicated to the faithfulness of the choir’s founder, Barbara Collier, in June, 1996. Also, the choir recorded their third album, “20 Anniversarry,” commemorating 20 years of ministry, in October, 2002. The musicians currently serving the choir are: Dawn Gulley Grayer, organist, Stephen Gulley, keyboard, Philip Hughley, guitar, and Aaron Grayer, percussionist.

The Cleveland Interfaith Choir is not an organization, it is an organism; the members are not entertainers, they are worship leaders; they are not celebrities, they are servants.